US aluminium giant Alcoa (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / USA; www.alcoa.com) plans to acquire speciality plastic packaging materials producer Ivex Packaging Corporation (Lincolnshire, Illinois / USA; www.ivexpackaging.com) for USD 790m, including assumption of debt. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. A producer of packaging of paper and plastics for both consumer and technical goods, Ivex had sales of about USD 650m and net earnings of USD 26m. Its polymerisation and extrusion business are concentrated in subsidiary Kama (www.kamacorp.com), which describes itself as world´s largest extruder of oriented PS and thermoformed film.

Kama has two European production sites, located in the UK (Sedgefield) and in The Netherlands (Folietechniek BV, NL-4940 Raamsdonksveer). Alcoa is world market leader in plastic closures and also produces PET bottles. In 1999 the US group widened its presence in the packaging sector with the acquisition of rival Reynolds, a strategy it continued in 2000 with the acquisition of British films producer Baco.